Should We Pause AI?

At a recent White House press conference, a Fox News correspondent asked the Biden administration's press secretary about AI safety researcher Eliezer Yudkowsky's highly publicized claim that if we don't pause or halt the development of artificial intelligence, then "literally everyone on earth will die." The question was met with some laughter from the White House press corps. But as someone with a technical background who covers AI and talks regularly to researchers, developers, and investors in the field, I saw nothing to chuckle at. Rather, I and other more optimistic AI watchers worry that overly dire warnings of imminent AI-driven destruction may cause us to pause or halt the development of a powerful technology with immense potential for improving our lives. Insiders hold a truly wide range of opinions on the best way to approach AI--from Yudkowsky's insistence that we immediately abandon all research in the area, to my own more moderate concern about large-scale industrial accidents arising from misuse of the technology, to an extreme optimism in some quarters about AI's potential to turn humanity into an immortal, star-spanning species.